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Argentinian wins for portfolio of images taken when living with islanders living in the Paraná river delta over two years An Argentinian photographer who began his career on local papers last night picked up one of his art form’s leading awards for a portfolio of pictures he took while living with islanders in the Paraná river delta, Argentina. Alejandro Chaskielberg’s dramatically luminous images of a community going about their daily lives won him photographer of the year – known as L’Iris D’Or – at the Sony World Photography Awards, presented last night at a gala ceremony at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. Chaskielberg, 34, spent two years with the islanders, immersing himself in their daily lives and taking photographs of precisely staged scenes at night. The chairman of this year’s judges, critic Francis Hodgson, said of Chaskielberg’s High Tide series: “These carefully directed pictures tell solid truths – about toil and community and marginal survival – in a splendidly allusive way.” Buenos Aires-born Chaskielberg, who took his first job on a local newspaper aged 18, said of the project: “Using photography, I have been able to present another version of the Paraná river delta and its community that has been photographically ignored throughout the years.” The photographer wins $25,000, new camera equipment, and of course considerable acclaim, joining previous Iris d’Or winners David Zimmerman, Vanessa Winship and Tommaso Ausili as a member of the World Photography Academy. He beat considerable competition, with 105,000 images entered from 162 countries. Other winners at the ceremony, which was held in London for the first time – it has previously been held in Cannes – included a Hong Kong jewellery manufacturer who taught himself basic photography skills using books and the internet. Chan Kwok Hung was named overall winner in the amateur categories, picking up $5,000 as Open Photographer of the year for his dramatic picture Buffalo Race, which he took in Indonesia. There were 13 more winners named in various professional categories covering everything from sport to travel to conceptual. Briton Adam Hinton won the campaign section of the commercial awards for his photographs for Saatchi & Saatchi and Spaniard Javier Arcenillas, shortlisted in four categories, won in two – current affairs and contemporary issues. The truly big name at last night’s awards was American photographer Bruce Davidson, 77, who received the outstanding contribution to photography award. He arrived ahead of two shows of his work in London – a selling exhibition at Chris Beetles gallery opening next week and a retrospective being shown as part of the World Photography Festival at Somerset House. Photography book awards were also given out as part of the proceedings with the best photography book going to a special volume of David Goldblatt’s TJ – images of Johannesburg shot over 40 years – which had married with Ivan Vladislavic’s novel Double Negative. Matthew Solomon’s book Disappearing Tricks, on early theatrical magic and silent film, won the best moving image book award and German publisher Gerhard Steidl was given an outstanding contribution award. Photography Awards and prizes Mark Brown guardian.co.uk